Trade

The revised London Mining agreement: better, but still a major problem (2012 - partner briefing paper)

A new mining agreement between the Sierra Leone government and a UK-based company, London Mining, contains a number of provisions which undermine legislation supposed to ensure the country derives full benefit from its mineral wealth.

In this paper, Christian Aid argues that a realistic view of the potential and the limitations of economic growth is necessary. Policymakers must aim not to maximise growth itself, but to maximise the benefits of growth to development. If we are not to waste development opportunities, we must get growth right.

A summary of electricity reforms in Nicaragua and planned changes in Nigeria reveals that not only is the IMF/World Bank privatisation model failing to deliver more energy to the world’s poorest people, but it is also locking them into a dependence on polluting and increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

This report shows that despite spectacular rises in the prices of commodity prices in oil, copper and gold, the 'equation' is still weighted very much in favour of the rich, with developing countries scarcely benefiting at all.

This report examines Haiti’s experience of trade liberalisation particularly in reference to the agriculture sector which suffered a dramatic decline post liberalisation.

It attempts to quantify the losses which have been borne mainly by poor rural communities and it also provides recommendations for ways forward which could aid the regeneration of the agricultural sector.

This paper looks at how EPAs are failing to help developing countries attract more investment. Developing countries also often find that foreign investment carries potential costs and its much-publicised benefits are not automatic.

The 2005 Christian Aid Week Report exposes the devastating impact unrestricted 'free' trade is having on poor communities in developing countries and calls on the British government to end its support for a ruthless orthodoxy that stretches back quarter of a century.

This report demonstrates how the World Bank and IMF fail to fulfil the standards of transparency and accountability that they call for in poor countries and recommends how these institutions need to change if they are to become modern and appropriate for the world in which we live.